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Video Games and Story
Video games, as a medium, can provide a challenge to the tradition notion of narrative and storytelling. The medium of video games generally allows for the audience to manipulate and control aspects of what is being presented to them. From title to title, the degree of what can be manipulated by the audience and what is kept consistent and concrete in the game's presentation can vary greatly. This balance provides a foundation through which narrative and storytelling can be implemented into the medium of video games, and the placement of this balance can determine the effectiveness, or lack thereof, in the delivery of narrative. Test A study conducted by two teams at North Carolina State University explores this curiosity. The researchers suggest that the impact of a story in video games is essentially rooted in how much control over the narrative a player is given. Since the dawn of video gaming with massive text-based quests that spiritually resembled choose-your-own-adventure stories, the implicit possibility of making a story branch--that is, offer many possible paths based on specific choices that the player might make at a certain crossroad in the game--has presented the dilemma of actually writing out such scenarios. Games with large amounts of branching would likely require more resources: more potential scenarios, more endings, and more people to verify that the narrative flow works cohesively. In order to work around this dilemma, the researchers postulate that large amounts of branching don't immerse players in a video game's story; rather, this effect is achieved by providing extensive feedback about the decisions a player makes. This phenomena plays into a concept that the researchers call 'agency.' While they present many definitions of the term, they promote a certain phrasing over others: the idea that agency is the "satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions." Put simply, the intended effect is that player makes a choice in a game and sees an impact on the game's environment or flow in a meaningful way. This doesn't necessarily need to be rooted in what the player desires to see, but rather the fact that there is some meaningful, observable impact that noticeably makes the player's experience of the game different from another player's. In order to test their ideas, the researchers create a sample text-based game. The medieval story features six different choices presented after certain blocks of text. What the subjects--all of varying demographics, especially in terms of gender--don't know is that only two choices actually effect the ending of the game. The other four choices merely provide certain amounts of feedback. As subjects play through the game, the researchers periodically tweak aspects of the game's story based on how often participants make certain choices within the story. Eventually, the researchers have three differently-designed stories to draw observations from: a branching story with immediate and long-term feedback, a non-branching story with immediate feedback, and a non-branching story with no feedback. From these stories, two hypotheses are formed: stories one and two will result in similar levels of agency (since they both provide detailed feedback) while story three will provide weaker levels of agency (since it lacks detailed feedback). The stories are tested in pairs to observe their impacts in relation to one another. Results/Discussion The results of the test are rather mixed. As expected, story one provided a much greater sense of agency than story three. Story one and story two provided similar levels of agency, satisfying the first hypothesis, although post-test questionnaires revealed that the subjects still felt as though they had a little more control in story one as opposed to story two. However, subjects did not report a statistically significant greater level of agency in story two when compared to story three. Other aspects of the results were also observed, such as the theory that moral choices provide a greater impact on a player's sense of agency and that a player's gender can influence which of the game's possible environments s/he chooses to explore. Overall, while the results of the test weren't exactly what the researchers expected, they did yield some interesting insights regarding the impact of story in video games. The fact that the two stories that provided extensive feedback inspired similar levels of agency when tested side by side suggests that deliberately providing a wealth of choices to players doesn't guarantee that they will feel immersed in the game's world and story. Rather, that immersion comes from being able to see that their choices impact something, even if it's only a line of dialogue. While branching can indeed play a role in this immersion, it isn't the only tool at a writer's disposal when authoring a video game's story. Providing a means of communicating a player's value in orchestrating the flow of a story to the player is where video games differentiate themselves from other media: whether this communication is accomplished through choices or detailed descriptions, it provides a unique opportunity for players to construct their own meanings, communicating their own messages right back to the world(s) around them. Criticisms and Expansions The scope of Murray's definition of agency has been reconsidered throughout further discussions. Some have suggested that the definition ought to encompass trivial actions and outcomes as well, given that the meaning that certain players draw from a game might be rooted in said trivial aspects. Essentially, the definition ought to clarify that meaning may come more from player interpretation. Furthermore, the conclusion of the article, as others reason, could be a little more expansive and open to the balance of choices and results. Although one of the article's foci is figuring out how to reduce the burden on scenario writers by factoring in fewer choices, this shouldn't suggest a universal move away from choice; choice can be reduced through more detailed impacts, but this can't be done indefinitely. Doing so would remove the player's control in the virtual environments. This can potentially be done to inspire helplessness in a player, but it doesn't necessarily make for a fully immersive experience. Specific Examples of Video Game Narrative BIOWARE Titles Since early on in development of game titles for personal computers, the idea of games in which the player character can have control of conversations with in-game-characters had been explored considerably. But as video games progressed into the 21st century, the action genre, with first-person-shooters and adventure games, usually focused more on pure-combat gameplay, as that was generally what audiences flocked to. Founded in 1995, and releasing a black-sheep title of Shattered Steel, Bioware went on to release a more successful and narrative driven title of Baldur's Gate (see top right). The game was a fantasy RPG, which included a large degree of dialogue, and variety of choice for dialogue that the main character would, which could result in branching storylines. The Baldur's Gate franchise continued, with a handful of sequels following. A title with similar visual aesthetic and gameplay was the Neverwinter Nights franchise. However the title boasted less with narrative control for the players. Bioware went on to achieve more popular success with the release of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 (see middle right). The game offered a less significant depth to choice of dialogue than the more text-heavy franchise of Baldur's Gate, however, the game boasted a huge depth of high-quality voice acting, a more cinematic visual style, and a more dramatic and spectacle driven narrative, which still included plenty of branching and exploration at a degree of control from the users. Following a similar style, Bioware introduced their new franchise, Mass Effect in 2007 (see bottom right). The Mass Effect series focused much more heavily on action-style gameplay than previous Bioware titles, with combat resembling that of a third-person shooter. However, like the Star Wars series the Bioware produced, there was a considerable amount of implementation of branching storylines and player choice. Bioware presents a number of examples of experimenting with the use of narrative directly presented to the audience in a way that resembles story structure in traditional cinema, while allowing the player varying amounts of control with the story itself, and how much that can immerse the audience further. Other Resources Articles detailing the affordances integrated into video games and a prime example of choice coming from writers as opposed to users can provide further understanding and discussion of this article's themes. Citations Fendt, M., Harrison, B., Ware, S., Cardona-Rivera, R., & Roberts, D. (n.d.). Achieving the Illusion of Agency. Retrieved December 21, 2015, from http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/robertsd/papers/icids12-agency.pdf The interactive book series starring YOU. (2015). Retrieved December 21, 2015, from http://www.cyoa.com/